I recently had the chance to get my hands on a beta version of elgato eyetv (v3.0.1b31). The cool thing about it? It will read TV listings from XMLTV files!
XMLTV is very important for users that live in areas for wich titanTV or tvtv has few or no information -like Greece, where I live.
I created an XMLTV file with the greek TV stations and their listings for the next couple of days. Then I drag’n'dropped it on eyetv, and… wow! For the first time in the last 3 years that I have been using eyetv, I was able to have a TV guide on it!
Once eyetv reads the XML file, you can go to the “Channels” listing and map your existing channels with the ones in the XML file. The “EPG” column will have one more option now, “xmltv”. Just click on it and eyetv it will try and match the TV station name you have set manually with the ones in XML. If it can’t you are presented with a list of all the channels in the XML file, and you pick the one you want.
I wish they added some more features in the final release, like the ability to subscribe to a remote XMLTV URL -in the same way you can manually subscribe to a podcast in iTunes by entering the feed URL. This would allow advanced users (it may require some hackery) to make their XMLTV files public for the less tech savvy.
The bottom line: I love it!
Hi,
Which is the drop target area for xmltv epg xml? I tried to drop the xml file into several parts but still no change.
@eFi: do you have the beta version? This will not work on the official versions, and as far as I know, the beta is not public.
If you do have the beta version, drag the XML file from Finder on the eyetv icon on the Dock, this should work.
no, I have the 3.0.1 release announced today. Also tried to drag the xml file to EyeTV icon but nothing changed – EPG channel selector still does not contain anything
Is there any visible sign where you can detect that EyeTV.app accepted the xmltv file for processing?
The “Channels” list will have an extra option under the EPG column, labeled “xmltv”.
Check out my second screenshot.
You can also get help at the elgato forums, where you will find more advanced users than me, here.
EyeTV forums: I checked a lot already – no success
Also wrote mails to Elgato – no feedback yet. Would you be so kind to send a sample xmltv file which is working with your EyeTV 3.0.1 EPG? I might cross-check it with mine.
I got this working in 3.0.1 after an entire day trying to get xmltv in install on my mac mini. Finally got xmltv to go and for me it went like this:
1. tv_grab_na_dd –configure (follow prompts)
2. tv_grab_na_dd –days 14 –output listings.xml
3. dragged and dropped listings.xml onto the EyeTV icon in the dock
4. waited for EyeTV to parse (spinning beach ball o’ death)
5. go to EyeTV -> Preferences -> Guide and select None. if it complains, let it. close out Preferences
6. ***RESTART EYETV*** (I got nothing to show up until I did this)
5. go to “Channels” in left hand bar
6. choose a channel and under the EPG column switch it to xmltv
7. a listing of your channels should show up if the xml imported properly. choose the channel assignment that matches the one you’re working on
8. you should now be able to see something in the guide for that channel (if you don’t, trying restarting EyeTV again)
Well… that worked for me. I’m off to write cron jobs and applescripts to automate this!
Hi Panagioti,
I was googling about xmltv +eyetv +greece and your page pop’d up first. I am trying to find information about how to build a xmltv file for Greece in leo, but unfortunately not much information exists (grabbers, tasks etc). Could you shed a little bit of light on this topic, since it seems you have lots of experience?
Thanx
Constantinos